Month: February 2021

“It’s not enough to have a dream, unless you’re willing to pursue it. It’s not enough to know what’s right, unless you’re strong enough to do it. It’s not enough to learn the truth, unless you also learn to live it. It’s not enough to reach for love, unless you care enough to give it. Men who are resolved to find a way for themselves will always find opportunities enough; and if they do not find them, they will make them.”—Samuel Smiles

Goals are one thing. Actions are another. It is not enough to say “I will.” One must say “I do” if one is to achieve one’s goals.

Success is a matter of persistent commitment and consistency. It is a matter of desiring, planning, and doing.

Seek to grow Spiritually, Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally, and Socially, but do more than just wish it. Act. Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich, but thinking without action in daydreaming. Growth takes effort—it takes a willingness to try and yet fail. Failure, however, is better thought of as learning.

What do you want? Pursue it. Seek, make, and find your opportunity. Unless you act according to your desires, you will not find that which you pursue.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!!

“And remember this: When you are pushed you go down-hill; when you push yourself you go up-hill.”—Orison Swett Marden

The one person in life in whom we seem to have the least trust is our self. Likewise, we tend to blame others for our circumstances. We ignore the fact that how we respond in the moment is a choice. We can yield to external control of our circumstances, or we can take command of our circumstances. Either way, it is a choice—the latter is just harder to do.

This message came at me from multiple directions this weekend. When this happens, I tend to listen to what my spirit is speaking to me.

The above quote from Orison Swett Marden (from The Victorious Attitude) seemed to summarize the voice I was hearing. I am in control of my choices and their outcomes. I determine my success (and the product of my failures). I have a choice (we have a choice). We can surrender to circumstances and be pushed down-hill, or we can welcome opportunity and push ourselves up-hill. External locus of control versus internal locus of control. Our choice. Which will it be?

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!!

I am often reminded of the blessing of the struggle. There can be no meaningful growth—Spiritually, Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally, or Socially—without some struggle. In terms of exercise physiology, I often refer to “the overload principle” and phrases like “minimum effective volumes”, etc. As a teacher, I am reminded of what my friend, colleague, and mentor, Dr. Travis Beck, taught me: “We never really learn something until we are first completely confused by it.” In other words, “struggle.” In all aspects of our growth, we have to embrace the challenge—the difficulty.

Life’s struggles are often a matter of perception and willingness to accept the Purpose in the moment. I have found from my experiences that, when the path seems too easy, I am on the wrong path. It is not the ease of the journey that we are after. Rather, it is the destination we seek.

I often remember the last activity I was required as a pledge to gain membership into my fraternity in college. It was early January in Morgantown. We were led, blindfolded, into the woods near Cooper’s Rock, were left at the bottom of an ice-covered hill and told we had to make it to the top. We slipped and crawled our way to the top where we were permitted to remove the blindfold. It was sunrise over the mountains of northern West Virginia. The sight of the sun over the valley was reward enough for what we had just went through. It was glorious. It was a moment, but it was a moment I could not have experience had the path been easy.

Life is hard. Life can be very hard and disappointing. In the moment, however, we are precisely where we are—where we are supposed to be—because of the path we have taken.

Appreciate the struggle. Accept the struggle. Learn from the struggle. Regret nothing. Remember, it is not what you did in the past or what was done to you in the past that matters. It is what you do next that matters. Yesterday is gone. There is only now. Tomorrow offers no guarantees.

Seek the life of constant improvement. Be better today—Spiritually, Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally, and Socially—than you were yesterday. This is real success.

Whatever the circumstances of your “path”, use them to grow. If the path is seemingly too easy seek greater challenges. Pursue the path of growth.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!!

“Instead of changing the rules to limit excellence, what if our knee-jerk reaction to excellence, merit, and achievement was to exhibit more excellence, show greater levels of merit, and accelerate achievement? This would be a notable difference from our status quo where we root for the underdog but sabotage the underdog’s success. Because when we look at the odds that must be overcome for a Simone Biles to become a legendary gymnast or for a Rich Paul to become a successful sports agent, their degree of difficulty is already at its maximum. So here’s hoping we can exchange this unfortunate status quo for a new rule: ‘If you can’t beat them, do better.’”—Colin Seale¹

“If you can’t beat them, do better.” When did this attitude fade from our mindset. I discuss this question quite frequently. (My friend Sandi shared this article with me this morning, and I had a very similar conversation with my cousin, an educator, just yesterday.) “Helicopter” parenting has morphed into “lawnmower” parenting. It has been shaped by “everybody gets a trophy” and passing kids along through the school system whether they have mastered the material or not. It is a common complaint that school policies permit student repeating exams and turning in late assignments/repeating assignments until they “succeed.” My cousin (the teacher) is frustrated by the growth (i.e., addition of assistance) of IEPs (Individual Education Plans) as students “progress” through the system. We should be raising the bar for our children lot building a stairway to the bar. The same in sports—and in life. We should be helping them early on and be progressively allowing them (encouraging/expecting and even forcing them) to do more for themselves as time goes on.

It used to be the American way: “If you can’t beat them, do better.” Now….

“We are all born with and equal opportunity to be unequal.”—Dan Gable

Now, we find it unjust for someone to perform better than us. Now, we limit success for the sake of others, and that accomplishes little.

Recently, the International Association of Athletics Federation changed the rules for women in sports to limit the success of women, such as Semenya Caster, who have disorders of sexual development and possess the male XY chromosome pattern—having testosterone in the “male range.” She is not taking performance enhancing drugs. She was merely born with a superior performance capacity.

Athletic performance has long been playing under the rules of natural selection. Are we to limit athletes who are naturally gifted because those of us who failed to choose our parents wisely can’t accept that we are not going to win of our own efforts? Do we not have “the next level” in sports of all kinds? If we can’t stand at the top of the Olympic platform (or any platform of victory in life), what is wrong with celebrating greatness and striving to “do better”?

I have a somewhat unpopular view in education that we should challenge our student—that it is more important to have them see where they can “do better” rather than have them “succeed” on exams that measure what they “know” rather than what they “don’t know.” I like hard exams that require a curve rather than exams in which there is “bell-curve” centered in the B-range (or higher). I learned more in my Structural Geology course in my undergraduate degree in which a had a 57 average (which was a solid B) and my graduate Anatomy courses in which I missed the majority of Dr. Morris’s questions in our weekly oral exams. (By the way, I aced my final oral comprehensive in Anatomy for my doctoral degree because I learned anatomy rather than memorizing the content—I got better.)

Life should not be about everyone winning or succeeding. It should not penalize those who more successful than others. Life is about opportunity and doing the best we can with what we are given. The rules should limit no one’s opportunity to be “unequal.”

¹ https://www.forbes.com/sites/colinseale/2019/10/08/if-you-cant-beat-them-change-the-rules-the-biles-and-unfair-barriers-for-excellence-in-america/?sh=61f883de160b&fbclid=IwAR2GfSZggPq_qUeTEf6zD_X-hv7XuYPHTsa80CUBNjBntRQS2guradwHQ20

Growth and changes are rarely linear—and certainly not constant. Change is incremental and woefully imperfect. It begins and ends (as if growth should ever end) with commitment and consistency. Consistency, however, is not perfect.

The goal is to pursue perfection. The reality is the perfection is rarely attained. To paraphrase Vince Lombardi, we achieve excellence. Our overall trajectory is toward success.

We can expect setbacks and plateaus along the way. It is all part of the journey.

Many are probably hitting the point where “New Year Resolutions” have stalled or been forgotten. There is no reason to abandon our goals because we have “failed.” Lombardi also taught us the “it doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up.” “Failures” are the lessons on the road to achievement. They are not a sign to give up on our dreams and goals. Instead, they show what doesn’t work. If something doesn’t work, change the strategy. This is consistency. This is commitment. Commitment + Consistency = Dedication.

I like to think of growth as an asymptote. There is always an opportunity for more growth. As goals are achieved, raise the bar. Keep growing. Pursue progressive change. Above all, don’t limit yourself or succumb to “failure.”
Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!!

“Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s the determination and commitment to unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.”—Mario Andretti

Desire gets us going on the path to success, but it is determination, commitment, and consistency that takes us to the finish line. These require a plan—and the execution of the plan.

If we desire to change—to be better today than we were yesterday—we need to commit to excellence and do the work. Success takes effort. There are no hacks, no short-cuts. If you want it, you have to earn it.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!!